Garp and his granddaughter both sat in the room, happily eating rice crackers while the Fleet Admiral raged and ranted. The sheep baa-ed and joined in the meal. Sengoku always did have a lot of rice crackers in his room.

"OI! YOU TWO!"

"What?/Baa~?" They all gave him innocent looks, though it looked funny on an old man like Garp. He growled,

"STOP EATING MY RICE CRACKERS!"

They grinned, "Yadda~"

Kuzan sweat-dropped, "Shouldn't you be telling them to listen?"

Making Sengoku cough, "Right. LISTEN YOU TWO!"

"Hai~" "Baaa—"

"Whitebeard's First Commander is gone and he's tearing apart the seas to look for the damn man!"

"So?" came four voices. Making Sakazuki growl,

"What do you mean 'so'? This is a major violation and we marines should punish the scum for disturbing the order."

The girl smiled, pointing out, "Not like Whitebeard's hurting anyone though."

Tsuru nodded, politely taking a rice cracker offered by the girl (making Sengoku twitch that his stash of rice crackers were disappearing), "She's right. The man's only looking for his commander. As long as he continues to not harm the islands and their people, then I see no harm as well."

And she was the main strategizer.

"Bwahahaha~ That old coon'll never harm innocents~"

Sengoku grunted as more agreements came up from his colleagues, muttering, "All of this is that damn Blackbeard's and Shiki's fault."

True. There was a somewhat major pirate war between the two forces. Whitebeard vs Shiki. Blackbeard turned traitor and helped Shiki, seriously injuring three of the commanders along the way—one falling to the ocean and disappearing. And then, the traitor disappeared himself though word has it that he was in Paradise falling many kingdoms.

Borsalino sighed, "Thoooouuuuugh IIIIIIII reeeeeeaaaaaallllllyyyy thiiiiiink thaaaat Maaaaarccoooo's deeeeeaaaaad aaalllllrrreeeeaaaaddddyyy."

Kuzan scoffed, "Well, Whitebeard obviously doesn't think so. You, Sakazuki?"

"Pirates are like cockroaches—you have to behead them with your own hands to make sure that they're dead."

"Which means Marco's not dead~ Though how does a Devil Fruit User survived falling into the ocean?"

Tsuru shrugged, "Even if you study the ocean for many years, it will still have its many mysteries."

Sengoku growled, "So why are you all sitting in my office?! Go out there and find Marco or do something about Whitebeard!"

"Hai." Though halfheartedly leaving.

"AND STOP EATING MY RICE-CRACKERS!"

The girl and old man stuck their tongues out before laughing while leaving.

"Luffy! Glad you became a marine unlike your damn brother."

The girl smiled softly, "Mm." In truth, she would have became a pirate as well… but she, too, knew loneliness and how lonely Jii-chan was feeling—how lonely he would feel if she left him like her dad and brother.

Luffy skipped back to her room, where she saw the blue bird watching her enter. She cleaned his bandages with a hum; him allowing her to. She grinned,

"Just came back from a meeting, birdie-san~ Sengoku's reeeeaaaaallly mad at the Whitebeard Pirates for tearing up the ocean these past months~"

His head perked up and she noticed his curiosity with a grin, "Ah, you like pirates or something? Well, naturally huh? Pirates and birds are both the embodiement of freedom, after all~"

He found his head tilted at that. The girl liked talking about freedom. So he learned this past week as the girl talked to him about random stuff, never letting him get bored.

"So the Whitebeard Pirates lost their commander or something and are trying to find him—good thing that they didn't harm any innocents yet~ Then, Sengoku and Sakazuki would be suuuuuper mad and destroy the pirates like that."

She clenched her fist in front of him and let the ball of bandages fall to the floor as an example. He mentally sighed in relief. So no marine trouble? It was bad enough to have a fleet of Shiki's pirates after them. Luffy patted him on the head,

"Hey, little fella—seems like you only got one more day~ Funny, huh~ I got one more day before I'm assigned to G7—the New World's getting a bit rowdy, ya know—" her voice quieted into a whisper as she looked out the window, "Not to mention, I got a real bad feeling about Blackbeard. I wonder if birds can feel it as well… the world stilling and waiting for his move—the world's about to change, whether for good or for bad, I don't know, but that Blackbeard's definitely going to change it."

Marco respectfully silenced for the girl as she contemplated his traitor's actions. The girl was quite like his Pops in that aspect; though he wondered what the two of them felt.

The next night, Luffy giggled as she got the bandages off the energetic bird. He was all ready to leave and rejoin his family.

"Nishishsishi~ Stay still for a while, birdie-san~"

He did, unable to wait for his trip home, and the bandages were finally off… with excited flickers of a blue flame, making them both freeze. Both understanding what that meant… both remembering their sides.

They stilled in silence, waiting for the other to move. Attack or not, just a movement.

Luffy finally made a move to sigh and pat him on the head,

"Ah, whatever. Hope you get back to your home safely, Phoenix-san. Whitebeard's at Noir Island, three thousand and seventy two kilometers north north east from here. Next time we meet, we're enemies though."

She smiled warmly, bringing him out of his frozen state and he nodded, bowing his head slightly with gratitude. He hadn't expected the marine girl to still let him go after he slightly lost control from excitement.

Though marine, he'll one day repay this debt.

With that, he took off, out of the room, through the window she opened, and into the night sky. The wind seemed to welcome him, exhilarating him to the bone as he set off to the island she mentioned.

After a long hour of flying at full speed, he saw them. Blue flames coursed his body as he spanned his wings before diving down into a certain pyromaniac and pompadour's hands.

"Marco!"

He grinned, taking in all of their appearances… especially Pops.

"Welcome home, Marco."

He nodded; eyes fully saying 'I'm home'.